Rice Farmer

Chronicling the decline of industrial civilization

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Cry Me a River

With all the well-deserved criticism leveled at Dubya, Jenna has decided to chide the public for our cold-hearted thoughtlessness. “Nobody wants war. I definitely, and my father doesn’t want war,” she claims, but the Bushes make gobs of money off war, so who believes such facile lies? But really, this is a heartwarming story of family love, just like another that I blogged. It’s obvious from Bushfamilyvalues, that the Bushes are full of love for the whole world.

The Great Fall-Apart Continues

Previously I observed that with cheap, abundant energy no longer available, it’s impossible to repair and rebuild infrastructure built with cheap oil. Now we can see this happening with the Smithsonian. The huge institution is leaking and creaking, and there isn’t sufficient security to prevent theft. Maybe they will find enough money to fix and right everything, but probably not. It all comes down to the high cost of energy. Expect things to continue falling apart.

9/11 and the Phony War on Terror

Over on AlterNet we have a quite interesting exposé on the phony “war on terror,” but there are a few of things that bother me. Don’t let this stop you from reading it, however, as it brings together a lot of useful facts.

First, if you are going to go into motives, at least mention all the of the major ones. Taking control of hydrocarbons is of course the first one that comes to mind. But there was also getting the drug factory running again. Because the Afghan pipeline is “a dead issue,” the author is saying that attacking Afghanistan was a total failure, when in fact getting opium back into production was one of the primary motives. This has been a resounding success. The vital importance of drug money to the world economic system cannot be understated.

Another motive, not even apparently worth a mention, is Israeli pressure. Over the last few years journalists and researchers have churned out books and articles exposing the heavy influence of the Zionist lobby over US Middle East policy, and there are grounds for suspecting Israeli complicity in 9/11 itself. Yet not even one word on this topic is merited? Perhaps the author is afraid of being branded “anti-Semitic.”

What about the police-state clampdown at home? The gobs of money flowing into the arms industry, the “security” industry, and the mercenary industry, just to mention a few? 9/11 was the trigger for these, too. Here too the neocons and their friends have enjoyed success.

Finally comes the most egregious error, that of handing the neocons the benefit of the doubt on 9/11 itself. While acknowledging that there are unanswered questions about 9/11, the author then calls it a “fortuitous” incident which the neocons took advantage of to advance their agenda. Excuse me? This article details how the neocons meticulously designed a program to take control of hydrocarbons and maintain the US Empire’s predominant position. Fine so far. But then we are asked to believe that the trigger to set everything in motion was left entirely to chance! Sorry, I can’t buy that one. The neocons may be evil, but they’re not stupid. No one is going to spend years developing such an elaborate program and then say, “All we need now is an appropriate, large-scale terrorist attack to set our plan in motion. Let’s sit around a few years and wait for something to happen.” You bet! Approaching this from a common-sense perspective is enough to see that the triggering event could not be left to chance.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Chickenhawks on Stage

These chickenhawks and their twisted logic just kill me. Couple of items.

First, there is an interview article with Jenna Bush. I’ll quote the applicable section here.

On other issues, Jenna Bush ducked a question about whether she agreed with her father about the war in Iraq, but she said she understood critics who argue that she and her twin sister, Barbara, should serve in Iraq.

“Obviously I understand that question and see what the point of that question is for sure. I think there are many ways to serve your country. I think ... what's most appropriate for me to do is to teach or to work in UNICEF and represent our country in Latin America.”

First of all, why did the journalist allow her to duck the question? She should be put on the spot and required to show her hand. If she agrees, then that clinches it — she should be out on the front lines. If she doesn’t, that strengthens the hand of the anti-war faction. Either way, she’d be making herself look very bad. All the more reason why the kids of elites should be required to answer. It’s an example of how elites are given a free pass.

Second, that “many ways to serve your country” line is the same dodge that other chickenhawks use. “I can do more good here” is the self-serving mantra of people who expect to benefit when the less-fortunate spill their guts in the desert. I’m sure that lots of soldiers now endangering their lives in Iraq would much rather have a cushy job working for UNICEF and “represent[ing] our country in Latin America.” Jenna Bush might consider changing places with one of them.

And then there is über-chickenhawk Rush Limbaugh, who got out of military service for what? A sore on his posterior or something like that. Well, the army has considerably lowered the bar for volunteers, so why doesn’t Limbaugh hie down to his neighborhood recruiting station and sign up for combat duty? Instead, he says that military personnel in favor of withdrawing from Iraq are “phony soldiers.”

Friday, September 21, 2007

Chinese Products: Just as I Said

I’ve been pointing out the truth about toxic Chinese products. They are a result of the demand by rich countries that China make lots of stuff cheaply. And the American companies that ask China to do this know it well. Now we have an executive of toymaker Mattel going to China to apologize for the toxic toys and taking all the blame! Analysts called this correctly, observing that if the Chinese government tried to deal with the situation by for example instituting tougher regulations, it would push down Mattel’s stock price and raise its costs. If that started happening, then Mattel and the other US companies that take advantage of Chinese labor would find that China would be having trouble making lots of stuff cheaply. Disaster.

So to repeat, China is just accommodating the wishes of the US, Japan, and other rich countries to make lots of stuff cheaply. China is not the one to blame.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Keeping 9/11 Under Wraps

CounterPunch (for the most part a good publication) has published another 9/11 truth movement debunking article. Leaving aside the many, many problems in this cheap hit piece (I’m sure others will deal with them), I would here like to address the statement that it would be impossible to cover up the crime because of the many people involved. Specifically, the author, Alex Doherty, writes, “The theorists are at a loss to explain how the Bush administration succeeded in covering up an operation that would have required the involvement of thousands of people...”

In fact, the theorists are not at a loss to explain this. It just appears that Mr. Doherty, in his gross ignorance, hasn’t taken the trouble to read any of the explanations (the fact that these debunkers never address any of the substantive, damning evidence is testimony enough that they are mere cheap apologists for the perpetrators of this monstrous crime).

So, how could the perpetrators keep this under wraps? It was indeed a large-scale, elaborate operation that must have required the cooperation of certainly more than a handful of people. I’m sure that, in one way or another, thousands of people did play a part. But let’s consider this more closely.

Even if 9/11 did involve a cast of thousands, it’s not hard to imagine how they could be kept silent. Threats against their lives and those of their loved ones is a good start. It’s well known that the neocons are highly vindictive. Would you want to cross their path? Even people who want to talk could be deterred by death threats. “Do you love your wife and kids? Then keep your lip buttoned.” Good deterrent, I’d say. Of course I don’t know that such threats have been made. Readers will just have to consider the possibility themselves. Nevertheless, this is one possibility.

Payola is another good means (I wonder if some of the Pentagon’s “missing” $2.3 trillion went into the pockets of those who cooperated). Why would anyone squeal? If they participated and got a handsome payoff, they’d take the money and shut up. After all, if they squealed, they’d be opening themselves up to charges of high treason and first-degree mass murder, not to mention taking a huge payoff to boot. Again, not conducive to squealing, wouldn’t you say? Would you talk if you were in that position?

Further, many of the people tasked with jobs that helped pull off 9/11 likely had no idea of their role in the atrocity. They were just following orders. Probably many people who “helped” even now do not realize that they themselves helped murder thousands of their own countrymen. Some no doubt suspect that they were forced into being accomplices, but can’t prove it. And besides, they must be afraid of what would happen to them if they expressed their suspicions publicly. Anyone who threatened to expose the perpetrators might soon end up being another Jose Padilla, with some kind of trumped-up terrorist charges filed against them, and ending up in solitary confinement.

Sure, this is all speculation. I really don’t know how the accomplices are kept silent. There are probably lip-buttoning methods that I have not even dreamed of. But the position that it would be impossible to cover up the operation is clearly a specious argument. That should be evident from the limited repertory of silencing techniques I have posited here.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth

Elite Al Gore has busied himself over the last few years with telling us Little People how we’re using too much energy and emitting too much greenhouse gas. Well, Elite Al had better check his own greenhouse gas index because he’s blowing a lot of hot air in addition to his huge ecological footprint. Previously I wrote about Elite Al’s huge energy bill for his mansion, but the latest is that he’s flying on a privatejet to events where he tells us that we’re using too much energy and emitting too much CO2! Fancy that. And there’s the matter of Elite Al’s waistline and diet.

Elite is as elite does. Al Gore is just another elite telling us hoi polloi to cut back while he uses his wealth to consume heavily and live high, like a pimp preaching abstinence to the masses.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Ethanol Does Not Free the US from Foreign Oil

If you still believe the hoopla about biofuels freeing the US from foreign oil, check out this comparison of Wisconsin and Minnesota. There is nothing wrong with ethanol per se. The problem is the large-scale ethanol industry, which is a scam, and the belief that it can do the same thing as oil. Ethanol can be one of many renewables that keeps us from tumbling back to the dark ages when oil becomes uneconomical, but it cannot maintain what oil has built.

Friday, September 07, 2007

Infrastructure Blues

Much has been said about the deteriorating state of modern infrastructure, especially in the US. One reason making it impossible to rebuild and upgrade everything is that much of the world’s modern infrastructure was built with cheap oil, but now oil goes for double the price. The energy to rebuild and upgrade everything, plus build planned new infrastructure, will be prohibitively expensive.

But now there is another reason. The subprime meltdown is creating a credit crunch that will severely restrict access to loans needed to finance infrastructure projects. So, paying the energy bill is only half the problem, as projects will find it hard just to come up with the money.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

The Real Purpose of ‘Security’

The arrant absurdity of “security” has reached new heights as we find that a cafe near Bush’s hotel was ordered not to set knives and forks on outdoor tables as they could be used as weapons by terrorists, and workers in a certain building “have been told to stay away from the windows, draw the blinds and not to look at helicopters”!

What’s going on here? Here’s my analysis. It has little or nothing to do with security, but a lot to do with terrorizing us Little People, and seeing how far the police state apparatus can make us kowtow to authority. By making ever more absurd demands on the grounds of “security” (such as no silverware and no looking out windows), the authorities keep bending the Little People so that we will readily and unquestioningly bow to any demand, no matter how idiotic or absurd. It’s a handy way to condition a population into absolute docility.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Vice President Franks?

I’ve been pretty busy lately and wasn’t going to blog anything today, but changed my mind when I saw this item about a report that retired General Tommy Franks, who helped lead America into the Iraq campaign of wanton carnage in the ongoing attempt to win control of Iraq’s oil, is being considered as a VP running mate by several GOP contenders for nomination. Remember, this is the guy who warned us that there might be an event that causes Americans to “question” their constitution and militarize the country. Gives me shivers just thinking about it.